WEYBURN -Weyburn city council finalized the last remaining changes and amendments to the Official Community Plan and zoning bylaw at their meeting on Tuesday evening.
The plan and bylaw was first approved by council a year ago, and the documents then had to be sent to the provincial government for ministerial approval.
The approval came in December, subject to a number of amendments and corrections that were to be made by Oct. 21.
In addition, as staff began to implement the bylaws, they found some errors and typos in the documents which also had to be corrected.
With the final approval and third reading of the plan and bylaw by council, it will now be submitted in its final form to the minister of Government Relations for approval. Once that approval has been received, the bylaws will then go into effect.
• In other council business, council was told that the Building Department issued six building permits in the month of September, with a total construction value of $51,200.
This brings the year-to-date total to 52 building permits so far in 2021, with a total construction value of $6,046,900.
This compares to a year ago when the city had issued 42 building permits by the end of September, with a total construction value of $8,480,000.
The permits given out in September were all for residential projects, four of them for exterior upgrades, one for a front deck and one for a detached garage.
In the Weyburn Builds program, the city has issued 20 building permits to date, while a year ago there had been four issued by the end of September.
• The Weyburn Police Service made a request for up to $20,000 to replace the overhead bay doors, as the overhead doors became inoperable prior to Sept. 28.
The doors had been on the list to be replaced for the past three years, and had been deferred in 2021 due to other pressing budget items.
After the doors became inoperable, the board of police commissioners held a special budget meeting, and directed the police chief to ask for an advancement of funds to cover the replacement of the bay doors. The board approved the request, noting they will reduce their 2022 budget requests by the same amount to cover the amount which is over their budget for this year.
The request was approved by council, and the work will be done before the end of 2021.
• In the monthly report from the water treatment plant, it was noted that daily water demand has decreased to an average of 4 million litres of water per day, and plant 100 is off-line due to the low demand.
The total amount of treated water distributed in the month of September was 127.4 million litres.
The level of Nickle Lake was 99.3 cm from full level as of Sept. 30. The level on Sept. 1 was 83.8 cm from full level.
• Council approved a new investment policy, after RBC Dominion Securities was contracted to provide a policy to include both short-term and long-term investments.
